Transport Committee on March 9th, 2026

[Dominique O'Rourke, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Salmons, I'm the member of Parliament for Guelph. We have a lot in common. We're all about ag and auto parts and a thriving southwestern Ontario, so it's a pleasure to meet you.

Some of my colleagues took my questions around how we reduce the regulatory burden and how we see better integration for full multimodal, so I'll shift to something a little different.

You mentioned that with the short-sea shipping, Windsor can do $3,000 less per container and you can reduce shipping by eight days. Canadian food economists have said that the trade diversification corridors fund, by modernizing ports, railways and airports, can ease bottlenecks so that goods can move faster and perishable products can arrive faster and more cheaply.

Given the agricultural powerhouse and the location of all those greenhouses, tell us how improving the port, improving the intermodal, can facilitate the distribution of food in Canada and reduce food prices.

[Steve Salmons]

It creates world markets.

[Dominique O'Rourke, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's good too.

[Steve Salmons]

The reality is, by creating these multimodal nodes across the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence through Quebec, we create a system of multimodal transfer points. We will simply choose the most convenient and most expeditious mode. Marine is always the greenest and the cheapest form of transportation.

Right now there are 20,000 containers going in and out of Windsor-Essex County every year, and 100,000 come into Ontario every month. Unfortunately, they're all by rail and truck. It's bad for the environment. It's costly, and it's time-inefficient. If we can begin to move product....

The movement of greenhouse produce is not going by container because we don't have container facilities. It's simply not an option for them, and yet we truck it to a facility somewhere else in Canada or, sadly, into the United States. A colleague who just came back from Aruba was eating cucumbers from Leamington that were brought in on a container, but not through the port of Windsor.

We can do better.

[Dominique O'Rourke, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Speaking of improvements in the port of Windsor, I have a list in front of me of some recent funding allocations, but it's my understanding that they are for occupants of the port. There is up to $12.5 million for the Essex Terminal Railway Company for a cargo terminal infrastructure expansion. There is $5 million in funding for a port of Windsor warehousing capacity project. I think you referenced it. There is also up to $26.3 million for a grain terminal expansion.

Are those projects under way? How do they integrate with the other improvements you would see for the port of Windsor? What does this mean for jobs and the economy in all of southwestern Ontario?

[Steve Salmons]

Every one of those projects you listed was matched by two, three or four times the equity from the port and the private sector. The key is leveraging federal contributions to provide the seed money to move forward. They spent $85 million on top of the money that went to ADM. ETR is building the container port. That's another $25 million on top of it.

The warehouse will provide capacity for us to deal with transshipment of goods from the Gordie Howe and to and from the port. This is along with container capacity that will leverage the entire region, whether it's industry, agriculture or construction goods. These things feed the local economy, integrate with the Great Lakes economy—the third largest in the world—and export to the world. Right now, we're missing a huge chunk of it.

[Dominique O'Rourke, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Ms. O'Rourke.

On behalf of all members of the committee, I want to thank our witnesses for joining us today and sharing their expertise on this very important study.

Speaking of studies, colleagues, we have some housekeeping.

As you are all aware, we've distributed the budget for this important study on ports.

Mr. Albas, are you moving a motion that we approve the budget?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

I have a quick question.

Again, Mr. Chair, I apologize, because I have just had a chance to review this.

Previously, when we brought in the Canada Infrastructure Bank for an earlier study, for example, we asked them if they had other government business they could have attended to. These are all federal entities with their own existing budget. Ms. Reeves is obviously from a civil society group, so by no means am I applying this to her. However, anyone from a federal Crown corporation or similar should be asked if they've done other meetings, and if they have, then maybe we should be asking them to pay their own way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Thank you very much, Mr. Albas.

That's duly noted. I will confirm with our regular clerk, who is not here today, that this indeed continues to be the standard practice of this committee.

Do I have any objections to adopting this budget?

Go ahead, Mr. Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Are we going to do the review and then report back?

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

Is this what you would like us to do before approving the budget?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan Lake West—South Kelowna, BC]

Yes, if you wouldn't mind, Mr. Chair. If I had thought of this earlier, I would have raised it earlier so that we could have done this in one fell swoop.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Schiefke]

I will confer with our clerk, and I'll respond to the committee.

Thank you all very much.

The meeting is adjourned.